Formula One driver Jenson Button received an MBE from the Queen after clinching the drivers' championship last year.

The 30-year-old driver said: 'To get the MBE caps an amazing season. I think it's everyone's lifetime ambition to achieve in what they're good at and what they love so to come here and collect an MBE from Her Majesty the Queen does mean a lot.'

Joining him at Buckingham Palace was Hollywood actor Patrick Stewart who was knighted. He honoured the memory of a former teacher who set him on the path to acting.

The star of stage and screen said English teacher Cecil Dormand had encouraged him to perform and cast him in a play with adults.

Button said after the investiture: 'I've had some good years and some tough years but to realise your goal it's a release in a way, it's a very special feeling but if you're a competitive person you start thinking about the next challenge.'

Button won six of the first seven grands prix of the 2009 season and sealed the Formula 1 drivers' title in Brazil with a race to spare, while his team Brawn GP won the constructors' crown with team principal Ross Brawn being awarded an OBE.

At the end of the season Button signed for McLaren, where he has been driving alongside team mate and fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton, the 2008 F1 champion.

Button said he has known Hamilton from an early age and it was a positive thing to have two equally competitive drivers in the same team.

Talking about Hamilton, he added: 'I think he's an extraordinary talent and I think it is important to have a competitive team mate and also he's a great guy.

'We get on very well, we work together very well and I think you need that if you're going to fight for the world championship.'

Button showed talent from an early age, winning his first kart race at the age of eight.

He soon progressed steadily though the various racing categories until he became Britain's youngest F1 driver when he signed for Williams when 20.

He honoured the memory of a former teacher who set him on the path to acting.

The star of stage and screen said English teacher Cecil Dormand had encouraged him to perform and cast him in a play with adults.